


All That Remains

by kamextoise



Category: Fullmetal Alchemist, Fullmetal Alchemist (Anime 2003)
Genre: Existentialism, Gen, Tragedy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-21
Updated: 2016-04-21
Packaged: 2018-06-03 14:20:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 350
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6614032
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kamextoise/pseuds/kamextoise
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Memories from another past.</p>
            </blockquote>





	All That Remains

When he first escapes, he travels east.

It’s a deep longing in his bones, a powerful pull inside of him he can’t control and doesn’t have a name for. Sometimes, he walks for days at a time. He’s spent too long sleeping, and doesn’t need to anyway. All the power needed to push himself forward is deep inside of him—the shattered remains of hundreds of souls, no longer alive but not dead either; trapped in eternal stasis.

Flashes of memories from someone who isn’t him tell him home is to the east, far beyond the confines of the country, but long before he reaches Xing. The memories are alien to him, not his own. They’re not anything he has ever seen with his own eyes. But he moves on, because he needs to see it, wants to understand what the memories mean.

 

It takes him a month to cross the desert by foot, and he hardly meets anyone.

He asks for no directions, and doesn’t think anyone could guide him even if he did.

It takes him a month longer to find what he’s looking for, and when he does, he nearly misses it.

It had been a great city, once. Stretching as far as the eye could see, going on for miles and miles. He remembers, it had been filled with gardens and palaces and life. But now the sand has reclaimed it; all that remains are the ruins, the rubble. The sand has taken this city from the world, and time has forgotten its name and its people.

He stands for an eternity, silent. He doesn’t need to breathe; the only sound is stillness.

Why did he come here, compelled by memories of a life he never led, of a world that was not his own. He’s out of time, centuries too late. Eventually, the sand will reclaim the rubble and only dust will remain.

Why did he come here?

A creature born of sorrow, of anger, of grief, despair. What does he know of longing, of this dead human city?

Not even bones remain here now.


End file.
